"As you can see I've had to be patient with certain things," Gill said. "We're looking at probably a smaller squad this season rather than a larger squad and going with a bit more quality than we had last year.

"One thing I want to be making sure this year is when I can change things, I certainly want a plan A and a plan B.

"I want to have the personnel able to do that this year, whereas I felt at times last year we didn't quite have the personnel there on the bench that I could change things the way we wanted to at times.

The addition of the frontman, who has netted over 200 goals in the past four seasons between Didcot Town and rapidly rising Hereford, will hopefully fulfil the scoring role City have struggled with in recent campaigns.

Gill added: "He's a player that is an out-and-out goalscorer, with a proven goalscoring record and most of his work is done in the box - that's something I've been after since I've come into the football club.

"What you won't see is John doing lots and lots of work outside the box and I won't be asking him to do that.

"Obviously he'll play his part tactically within the team, but as most people will have seen from his clips and knowing about him, he's a guy that knows where the back of the net is.

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"He shoots off his right foot, his left foot, scores goal with his head and makes a lot of really good near-post runs which I like about strikers. He's always on the move in the box and once he gets those chances he's clinical.

"It's an opportunity for him, it's a challenge for him because he hasn't played at this level, so it's something that he's going to have to get his head around.

"He's more than ready for the challenge and looking forward to joining us."

Ryan Clarke has already signed for Bath City this summer (Image: Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

And there might yet be more business coming at Twerton Park.

"Maybe a little bit more if I can," Gill said. "The board have been fantastic with what I've been able to do at the moment, and we're trying to work within a budget.

"It's difficult because the wage demands seem to get bigger and bigger each summer, but we've been really pleased with the signings we've made within the budget.

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"We might be looking to add to it a little bit more if we can. But of course the loan market comes into play, which was key for us last season as you know.

"We're playing against Bristol City and Reading 23s [in pre-season] for a reason, being the fact that we can take players from them and we've got a good relationship, so that might be the business we're doing.

"It helps the budget and it helps the squad, so we'll wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks."

Bath City's home ground of Twerton Park (Image: Henry Burridge)

Pre-season training for the squad finally gets under way this Saturday - a day Gill has long been looking forward to.

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"It's really nice that I can finally say this is my squad that we've got ready and we're really looking forward to the challenge, which is going to be a real tough season, but we're looking forward to the challenge that's ahead."